GEM5000 Cartridge Operation Question

You could go to the 2nd tab at the top, Manual Selection, and disable the one analyte and still use the cartridge.  You'll have to work with your IS to replace a blank with "unavailable" if you have that scenario so you won't have all results still outstanding, or you could manually result every test. :(  If it is a sensor error, there is really no getting around having to change out the cartridge.  It's also changed that Werfen used to FedEx a new cartridge if it was less than half used, but now they will only FedEx if the cartridge errors out at the start of the cartridge use.  We have a cart with an extra cartridge always available.  

You cannot disable the quality check to reduce time in between samples.  This happens all the time when we run our CVP for certain levels and it takes time.  If you're using it in a cath lab where time is of the essence you may just have to cap the sample immediately, put the time on it and put a note in the sample when you run it with the correct draw time.

Thanks Lori. But the situation is that the cartridge was rejected automatically by the instrument after one sensor failed. After that, the instrument will not accept this used cartridge. 

Our cartridges are rejected if an analyte fails during startup, but if an individual analyte fails after startup has successfully completed, the GEM just disables it.  I don't see anywhere in my configuration that controls this so I had assumed it was a standard feature.  I actually wish it WOULD reject the cartridge when an analyte is disabled because we can't run partial panels!

I don't think there is anything you can do to reduce the post-sample quality check run time.  For the in-run quality check, you can set your "Flag Sample Results" is set to Off (it's in the Area Configuration).  This makes the analyzer report the results a little faster.